Lives of the Serbian Saints

tr. Yanich and Hankey, 1921

16. The Life of the Holy and Just Stephen Shilanovich

This holy and just Stephen was born of Orthodox and godly parents in the district called in our day Pashtrovich, in Hum, near to the sea, during the reign of the great Doge of Venice. While he was still young he loved the Lord greatly and purposed to direct the way of his soul towards Him. When he came to man’s estate he was zealous to fulfil in his life the will of the Lord, which he learnt from the Holy Scriptures. He was very skilled in all military knowledge, wise and brave. He placed himself under the Serbian despot of those days, whom he served faithfully, in accordance with the words of the Apostle, “Servants, be obedient to your masters according to the flesh, for that is pleasing unto the Lord”; and again, “That servant who doeth the will of the Lord is called to be the steward of all things.” By serving his earthly lord, he served his heavenly Master; by warring against the Turks, he became a soldier of the army of heaven; indeed, he was a terror to his enemies, but more terrible still to the powers of evil, and as he was victor over the Turks, so also he thrust down all wicked thoughts and rooted up temptation from his God-loving conscience, having the fear of the Lord always before his soul, like the prophets. By the fear of the Lord all evil is dispersed, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and this saving fear was to him as an army on which he trusted more than on his sword and his other weapons of war. So trusty a servant the despot desired to reward, and he gave to him a part of the Serbian country, the most fertile in all Sirmie. To this place he came and chose for his home a place of humble standing, but no longer humble when the saint lived in it, for then it seemed more glorious than the cities of the tsars—a house like the house of Job. For Job, say the Holy Scriptures, “was perfect and upright and eschewed evil.” So also we may say of Stephen, for he was a man perfect and thinking only what was upright. His thoughts were righteous not only before God but before men. He was pure and free from guile, always doing good works, giving alms, living uprightly, with prayer, firm in the Orthodox Faith and in love unfeigned for his neighbours. When he exercised authority he was clothed in justice; pride never visited his mind and heart, but he ruled always in the fear of the Lord.

Now a terrible famine fell upon his land, not because it was not fertile, or because of floods or droughts, but because of the invasions of the thrice-accursed Turks, that godless people. For the war continued many years, and they pillaged all the country side, taking all the oxen and cattle, so that the people could not plough the fields. At such a time the godly living Stephen, sorrowing for his people in such a plight from the famine, opened all his granaries and gave to all men the grain without payment. Thus he saved them without receiving one mite in return; for he was mindful how Dives called to Abraham when he was in the fire of hell, and the five virgins against whom the door was shut, and that Just Judge who will say, “I was an hungered and ye gave Me no meat,” and he looked only for the reward of the Lord in everlasting life.

When this year of famine was past and still he could not bring the war to an end or stem the tide of invasion and pillage, the saintly and just Stephen could no longer bear to look upon the cruelties of the Turks in the Serbian country, all deserted and plundered. So he left his home and went to the Hungarian king, not because he was in fear but because his one faithful people could not fight single-handed against an enemy whose power was ever increasing and whose oppression was beyond measure. The Hungarian king received him gladly because of his bravery, or perchance for his wisdom and virtue, and gave into his keeping more villages and towns on the left bank of the Drava than he had before. He established himself in one of the towns which the king had given to him, and continued to live as in former days, abounding in firm faith and works of love towards his neighbour. So lived he many years till at last he exchanged this transitory for the eternal life, and his soul departed to that place he had so greatly longed for from his youth up. His honoured body was buried by his wife Helen with all the rites of the Church in a place of great beauty a little way from the town. She gave also a great part of his possessions to his servants, letting them go where they would, while she herself, in fear of Turkish attacks, departed to Germany.

Not long after the Turks invaded that country where St. Stephen had lived and died; and they took that town and remained there in great multitudes. While the Turkish army was ruling this country as though it was their own, one night, when all the land lay in silence, there appeared by the providence of the Lord shining rays of light on the place where the body of St. Stephen was buried. When they saw this sign, the Turks came to that spot in fear and began to dig, looking to find some treasure. But soon they saw that their hopes were vain, for they found only in the tomb the body, lying uncorrupt in its death clothes, from which issued a sweet smell. Greatly amazed at that which they had seen and found, and knowing not what to do, or the race and name of the dead, they called some of the faithful who stood by. But these made answer that they knew nothing. The soldiers then told their emir concerning these things, and he came to the tomb in wonder and asked them who had been buried there. Then some who knew this thing made answer, “None other than a voievode who lived in this town, Serbian born and Stephen by name.” When the emir learnt this, he perceived that Stephen was akin to him; for he also had been born at the same place as Stephen, and had been made prisoner and sinfully denied the Orthodox Faith; but now, full of love for his kinsman, he acted honourably towards his relics and gave order that they should be kept with all respect. When the report went abroad through all lands, that they had found the relics of the saint, and that some miracles had been wrought through them by the providence of God, there came honourable monks under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and besought the emir for the holy relics. The emir, after gifts received, gave them the sarcophagus containing the relics of this upright man. The monks, like the man who bought the pearl of great price, took those honoured remains with joy and went quickly to their monastery in Frushka Gora, to the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, called by its founder Shishatovatz, which is in Sirmie, where before the saint had lived. When the monks came to the monastery, they took from the cart the sarcophagus with its relics, and singing psalms and hymns, they laid them in a place set apart in the church, where they rest till this day for the faithful to kiss them.

Now his wife Helen heard tell that men had found the body of the just and saintly man and brought it to the monastery Shishatovatz. And she had great longing to see with her eyes that which she had been told, for all that she was so far away in German country. But the rulers of that land set themselves against her desire and counselled her that she should not go again into that country taken by the Turks. Yet when she made known to them how greatly she yearned to go, recking little of the peril from the Turks and what might befall her, they gave way to her desire but forbade her to take away her possessions. When Helen found herself in this perplexity she gave away a great part of her possessions in secret to the poor and the widows and the prisoners, leaving for herself only so much as she could carry with her, and privily took ship down the Danube and so came to the monastery Shishatovatz in safety. Thus she came to the body of her husband; and weeping she kissed him on the brow and said, “Blessed art thou, Stephen; my good will be with thee. Do thou remember me who would speak with thee in time past of holy things, that I too may receive some portion of that which thou hast in the Lord.”

No long time after she laid aside her lay clothes and a lock was shorn from her head, and for the name Helen she received that of Nun Elizabeth. Then she went into a desert place three days’ journey from the monastery on the far side of Frushka Gora, by the river Danube. All that she brought with her from the German land, together with the book of St. Stephen, wherein were written the Psalms of David and some of the canons, very finely bound together, she gave to the monastery. And when she had lived three years in prayer and fasting, she died and was brought to the monastery and there buried in the narthex on the left hand. The body of St. Stephen lies in the middle of the church, where the singers are, and every day it is exposed to the faithful, but especially on the day of his memorial, when many of the Orthodox come here.

Through his prayers may Jesus Christ Our Lord give us strength for repentance and forgive us our sins. Amen.